The following patent application, having the same inventorship, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and filed concurrently herewith, covers subject matter related to the subject matter of the present invention: xe2x80x9cA WORKFLOW DISTRIBUTION PROCESS GRANTING TO OPERATORS WITH ASSIGNED ACTIVITIES ACCESS TO NEEDED COMPUTER RESOURCES AND WITHDRAWING SUCH ACCESS UPON THE COMPLETION OF THE ASSIGNED ACTIVITYxe2x80x9d, Ser. No. 09/561,186.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to data processing work distribution and particularly to the protection of the computer resources of the distributer used in executing and carrying out work activities assigned to operators remote from distributer or sender of the work request.
2. Background of Related Art
The 1990""s have been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies which have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or World Wide Web (Web) related distribution of documents, programs, media and all other data processing entities. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached xe2x80x9ccritical massxe2x80x9d and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion.
As a result of this expansion, extraordinary worldwide communication channels and resources have become available to businesses, and this has commenced an era which will forever change how business processes are conducted. Through the use of networks such as the Internet, business processes of different companies often handle each others"" requests with little or no human intervention; little human interaction is required to have one business process talk to another business process of a different company. Another related trend has been that of businesses outsourcing various data processor controlled tasks or activities to contractor or subcontractor individuals or organizations. As a result of Internet functions and capabilities, the outsource participants may be in different cities or countries. Often, routine outsourcing of activities may be done automatically with a minimum of human intervention or control.
However, this outsourcing or like collaboration between different organizations and companies requires the sharing of resources such as business processes and databases. Each outsourcing company often has to make available to one or more of the others, proprietary databases, application programs and other resources which the others may need to complete their activity. These other participants are likely to either be competitors or associated with competitors in many other business areas. Thus, the outsourcing of work activities and tasks presents many problems to the company or organization which is outsourcing or distributing the work. How does a distributor insure that the proprietary resources lent to outside participants or operators which are performing specified activities are not also being misused for other unauthorized purposes? Because more and more of activity distribution and outsourcing may be done routinely and automatically with a minimum of human intervention, how can the distributor track what has been lent out and insure that access to these proprietary resources are terminated when their associated activity has been completed?
The present invention provides a method and system for limiting access to the proprietary resources of an outsourcer or distributor to the participants/operators having assigned outsourced activities requiring such resources. The invention limits the access only to the assigned activity execution and prevents the misuse of the resources for unauthorized purposes. The invention also provides for reliable tracking of the lent out resources and insures that access is terminated simply when the associated activity has been completed.
In its broadest aspects, the present invention provides a computer controlled interactive display system for assigning, e.g. .outsourcing, data processing activities to the participant/operators through interactive display interfaces accessed by the operators. Means are provided at the distributor level for selecting a plurality of operator performable activities to be outsourced, and predetermining for each performable activity one or more computer resources needed to carry out each performable activity but normally inaccessible to the participant/operator to whom the activity is assigned.
Means are provided for assigning performable activities to a user or operator together with means for interactively displaying in association with each activity, the computer resources needed to carry out the respective activity in combination with means, responsive to said assigning means, for granting to said operator through this interactive display, access to the computer resources needed to carry out said assigned performable activity only during the execution of said activity, whereby the displayed resource is removed from the display and, thus, becomes inaccessible upon the completion of the activity.
In addition, there may be provided to each of the operators access to a plurality of basic computer resources without limitation to any assigned activity so that the computer resources made accessible to operators for carrying out said assigned activities boost the resources provided to the respective operators. This basic set of resources is available to the operator irrespective of any assigned activities and is displayed as a basic set of elements, each representing a basic computer resource selectively accessible by said operator.
The present invention may most effectively be used where the activities are distributed over the Internet with the distributor or outsourcer at a sending station and the participants or operators at receiving display stations. In such an arrangement, the assigned activity may be sent in the form of electronic mail. The assigned activities and attendant designated resources could be conveniently displayed at a receiving display station in the form of an inbox display listing said assigned activity, and the system further includes means for activating said assigned activity to thereby interactively display the designated resources needed to carry out said assigned activity.